Marine survey systems are used to acquire data (e.g., seismic, electromagnetic) regarding Earth formations below a body of water such as a lake or ocean. The marine survey systems typically use a plurality of sensor streamers which contain one or more sensors disposed within an outer jacket.
In some situations, one or more sensor streamers may be disconnected from the survey system, the disconnection possibly caused by failure of a coupling mechanism or in some situations the sensor streamer may be severed (e.g., by the propeller of a passing vessel). In some failure scenarios, particularly with sensor streamers filled with alcohol or oil, the sensor streamer becomes negatively buoyant, thus tending to sink. In order to avoid complete loss of the sensor streamer, an inflatable balloon system may trigger, which causes the sensor streamer to surface. However, balloon systems are large and bulky, and create noise in the signals received by some sensor streamers (e.g., sensor streamers comprising hydrophones).